The South Korean government has said it will investigate statements by American soldiers that they killed hundreds of civilians during the opening weeks of the Korean war in 1950.

The killings are said to have taken place in July, shortly after the invasion of the south by communist North Korea.

American soldiers said they had been told that North Koreans had disguised themselves as South Korean refugees.

How the notorious bridge looks today

Up to 300 people may have been killed in one incident when civilians were herded under the No Gun Ri railway bridge and shot, according to the Associated Press news agency, which interviewed former US troops and cited recently declassified documents.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Seoul said it will "soon" start to look into the reports.

"The government will try to confirm, with special care, the things related to the story on the No Gun Ri incident," foreign ministry spokesman Chang Chul-kyoon told the state-owned Yonhap News Agency.

Stressing that the investigation would take "a considerable time", Mr Chang added that the South Korean authorities were in no position to take any action before finding any evidence to substantiate the mass killings.

Evidence of cover-up

Following the US media reports, a Korean TV station took some of the villagers who said they_d survived the shootings back to the site.

US soldiers were told North Koreans could have infiltrated refugee columns

They found that the brickwork of the railway bridge where they said they had been herded had been recently resurfaced. Bullet-holes had been covered up.

South Koreans have been discouraged from fighting for compensation in the courts.

Last year, a government committee ruled that demands by 30 survivors of the Korean war were too late. It said a five year statute of limitations had expired many years ago.

The committee said it believed people had died in the area at the time of the alleged massacre, though it reportedly found no evidence of American involvement.

After their claim was rejected, the group of survivors accused the government of trying to cover up the alleged incident to avoid embarrassing the United States.

The US led the UN forces that defended South Korea during the war, and even today there are still 37,000 American troops stationed here.